Daniel MacIvor's Cake and Dirt: An acidic take on Toronto's upper class

Playwright Daniel MacIvor's newest play, Cake and Dirt, is a wicked satire of a certain type of Torontonian at their worst  -- you know the one -- selfish and privileged. 

MacIvor -- who has lived in Toronto for 25 years but is a self-declared Cape Bretoner through and through -- joins guest host Allan Hawco to talk about class and privilege, how cities infect us with selfishness, and why he expects his play to make people uncomfortable.

Cake and Dirt tells the story of a corporate lawyer whose downtown penthouse birthday party turns out disastrously. MacIvor, who comes from "super working class Cape Breton," says that he's been able to observe Toronto's social and cultural circles "as the jester, the artist -- so you get access to these worlds you normally wouldn't."

As for what he's learned, MacIvor says: "We're all privileged...but I think an awareness of that is important, and we don't just start accepting the fact that that's the norm." 

Cake and Dirt opens March 11 at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto and runs until April 12.

*Click on the listen button above to hear the full segment (audio runs 18:17).